The Baking Medic

These treats are one of my all time favourites. They’re called Nanaimo bars after a town in British Columbia that shares the same name. They’re quite common in that region, although not many have heard of them outside Canada. Although the three layers may seem like a lot of effort, it’s definitely worth it! They’re also no-bake bars, which is handy if it’s one of those days when you don’t feel like turning on the oven. :)

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Last night I was struck by a craving to bake. Do you know the feeling? When you just. need. to. bake. However, at 5.30pm I was reluctant to try and brave the hordes of other students buying dinner at Tescos so I was restricted to what storecupcoard ingredients I had. Luckily with me being me, there is almost always chocolate, butter, flour and sugar in the house. A few eggs generously donated by a flatmate (perhaps with a vested interest in the products of said baking…?). And finally a quick look in the fridge revealed a tub of cream cheese. Et voila! Everything you need to make these absolutely heavenly Chocolate Chip Cookies Bars right at your fingertips.

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First of the summer baking...

YES. EXAMS ARE OVER. Or at least they are for 2nd year medics.  My condolences to those of you who still are jailed at home or in the library. It’s strange that after nigh on a fortnight of revising 10 hours a day I’m almost at a loss of what to do with myself.  I feel guilty for not revising when there isn’t anything to revise anymore!
Yesterday, after celebrating with a plate of well deserved Whey Pat Nachos (if you’re from St Andrews you will understand the epic tastiness of the Whey Pat Nachos) and a pint, I decided to make Cranberry White Chocolate Tiffin. I’d had the idea to try and make a White Chocolate Tiffin for a few weeks.  However, the last 2 weeks have seen me locked in my room with no hope of baking.

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I’ve had a craving for my favourite brownie recipe recently — an almost overpowering desire to sink my teeth into a fudgy moist square of chocolate heaven.  But this blog is all about discovering new recipes so I didn’t want to just make the same old brownies, as delicious as they are.  So I decided to turn them into Rocky Road brownies, by adding a gooey topping of toasted marshmallows, peanuts and mini milk chocolate chips.

I must say that these brownies are very fudgey.  Since it was an experiment, I was unsure about how long I should bake the brownies before adding the topping.  The problem is that once the topping is on they have to go back into the oven.  Put the marshmallows on too soon and you’ll either burn the topping or have a gooey centre.  Put them on too late you could be left with dry, burnt edges.  So, knowing that brownies taste good even if really gooey I erred on the side of caution and perhaps underbaked these brownies a little bit.

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Cheesecake Brownies with Raspberry Marble

Although I routinely get the ‘brownie-shakes’, it’s not often that I crave cheesecake.  But last week, the urge hit and I couldn’t ignore it: I just had to make something with cheesecake in it.  Since I had decided that bars would be more practical if I wanted to share these with my colleagues at work, it was just a matter of choosing the type of base I wanted.

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O Canada! Our home and native land… (NOT sung to the tune of ‘O Christmas Tree’, as so many of you delight in doing. /evil glare.)

Happy Canada Day! Well, yesterday was Canada Day (July 1) but I still hope you had a merry one! It was also my dear borther’s birthday (he gets to celebrate with everyone in the country!).  Last year, for his 21st, we threw him a big party and instead of a cake, I made cupcakes, each with a chocolate flower on top.  I remember for at least a week beforehand I was at it each night, molding the chocolate plastic into pansies, lilies, and roses… until our freezer began to resemble a bizarre stash of the decapitated heads of flowers.

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These bars are soooooo good.  But how can you go wrong with a crumbly, buttery base covered by a thick layer of fudgy chocolate? And top it off with some more buttery crumbs, chocolate chips, and chopped walnuts… I’m sold.

So I’m very much behind on my posting again.  That’s not to say I haven’t been baking! Indeed, I feel like Ive been baking more than ever.  Perhaps it’s in procrastination – I’ve got a midterm this afternoon! *gulp* Go figure that I choose the morning of the midterm to post and not anytime in the past two weeks.

This post will be a quicky.   Just some pictures to let you know that I haven’t given up on this blog. :) If you want the recipe, just give me an email and I’ll be happy to send it too you! » Read the rest of this entry «

I’ve made these twice this summer, and both times were met with resounding success. The best part about these bars is that they take almost no time to put together and are infinitely versatile. My mother has Celiac disease, a condition that prevents her from eating anything with gluten in it. This basically means that anything with wheat in it is off the menu, unless she’s got a hankering for a good case of nausea and the runs (in my experience, she has never desired this).

But as I was saying, these bars are really flexible. When I make them for my mum I keep the same ratios of ingredients, but sub in cornflakes for raisin bran and add cranberries and white chocolate chips. A very different taste, but still a delicious, gluten-free treat. » Read the rest of this entry «

As promised, I brought in my Marbled Chocolate Almond Brownies to work this past Friday.  If I do say so myself, they were as good as I remembered them! ;) And the container, empty save a few crumbs, is one of my favourite sights. » Read the rest of this entry «